IRT Dyre Avenue Line (mtamaster edition)
The IRT Dyre Avenue Line is a New York City Subway rapid transit line, part of the A Division (IRT). It is a branch of the IRT White Plains Road Line in the northeastern section of the Bronx, north of East 180th Street. As of 2013 it has a daily ridership of 34,802. Extent and service The following services use the Dyre Avenue Line: This line is served by the 5 train, which makes all stops. The line is double-tracked for its entire length, with additional center tracks from Eastchester – Dyre Avenue to just south of Morris Park Avenue. In the late 1990s the express tracks were extended from south of Dyre Avenue and connected to the stub end tracks at Pelham Parkway for testing new subway cars for the A division. The southbound track at Dyre Avenue is in the position of the southbound express track, as the southbound local track is no longer present. The current platform is built over the northbound express track. Small portions of the original side platforms remain on both sides of Dyre Avenue station. South of Dyre Avenue station, the southbound track moves over to the local position and the southbound express track begins. These tracks are used for storage when not testing cars. However, this use has largely been made redundant by the expansion of Unionport Yard. The north end of the line is a simple two-track stub, with crossover tracks south of Dyre Avenue terminal. The south end is a flying junction (the Dyre Avenue Flyover), into the local tracks of the IRT White Plains Road Line (with crossovers to the express track). Both of the inner tracks are currently in use for work trains involved in the signal modernization project on the line. History The Dyre Avenue Line was originally part of the four-track main line of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, an electrified commuter line that connected White Plains and Port Chester, New York to a station at the Harlem River adjacent to the IRT Third Avenue Line. The NYW&B opened on May 29, 1912. Soon a transfer station opened at East 180th Street, with transfers to the IRT White Plains Road Line and various surface lines. Express trains stopped within the Bronx only at Pelham Parkway and East 180th Street. The NYW&B was abandoned on December 31, 1937 due to bankruptcy. Plans were made for a parallel subway line even before the NYW&B's abandonment; a 1929 expansion plan included a line along Morris Park Avenue, Wilson Avenue and Boston Road to Baychester Avenue, fed by the IND Second Avenue Line. In 1939, after abandonment, the plan was to integrate the former NYW&B to Dyre Avenue into the IRT system branching off the IRT Pelham Line as the Westchester and Boston Line. The New York City Board of Transportation bought the NYW&B within the Bronx north of East 180th Street, and opened it for service on May 15, 1941 as a shuttle, with a transfer to the IRT White Plains Road Line at East 180th Street. Plans for restoring the old line north into Westchester County failed. Twenty old Third Avenue Elevated cars were used to run the service. The Dyre Avenue Line was connected directly to the White Plains Road Line north of East 180th Street for $3 Million and through service began on May 6, 1957. Night service would continue to be operated by a shuttle. At this time, the old NYW&B station was closed. Through service was operated by Seventh Avenue express trains between 5:30 AM and 8:30 PM. Between 8:30 and 1:15 shuttle trains operated from East 180th Street to Dyre Avenue, and in the early morning hours no trains operated over the line. On February 27, 1962, the Transit Authority announced a $700,000 modernization plan of the Dyre Avenue Line, including the reconstruction of the Dyre Avenue station, and the extension of the platforms of the other four stations on the line. On April 18, 1965, IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line trains and IRT Lexington Avenue Line trains swapped their northern routings, with Broadway – Seventh Avenue 2''' trains running via the IRT White Plains Road Line to 241st Street, and Lexington Avenue '''5 trains running via the Dyre Avenue Line to Dyre Avenue.